Steve Jobs famously said about iPad competitors that “If you see a stylus, they blew it,” alluding to his own belief that pen-based computing is a non-starter for the vast majority of users. Longstanding pen-and-tablet hardware manufacturer Wacom has a new product called Inkling (not to be confused with the textbook app platform) that suggests perhaps that computer-based pens might do better.
Inkling is a combination of a proprietary pen and a sensor that clips onto the top of any sheet of paper. The pen is used like any other pen (it’s even filled with ink) and the sensor captures the marks and strokes in digital form. When the drawing is complete, the user hooks up the sensor to the computer (inelegantly, a USB cable is required), the strokes can be translated into raster or vector art. The high-production value demonstration video makes it look very smooth, though videos like this always do. If the final, shipping product is able to produce faithfully rendered vector files, though, I’ll be impressed, even if I remain skeptical that this product really makes much sense for many people. Inkling ships in September so we’ll see. Find out more here.
+